Clooney in Talks as Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Clooney in Talks as Man From U.N.C.L.E.

I was so fond of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. when I was a kid that I named my two kittens Solo and Kuryakin. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is yet another studio TV remake that begs the question: will anyone under 50 remember the title?

But things are looking up now that George Clooney is in talks to star in Steven Soderbergh’s film adaptation of the classic spy vs. spy series, reports The Playlist. The two men are long-time collaborators: they worked together as director and actor on Solaris and The Good German, and partnered on many productions during their tenure running their former production company, including Syriana and Good Night, And Good Luck.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is still in early stages, but The Playlist confirms that Warner Bros. has approved Soderbergh’s “original take on the material, which would not modernize the film and keep it set in the director’s beloved 1960s (one just needs to take a look at The Limey for how much affection the lenser has for this era of filmmaking).” Soderbergh may want to throw out the existing scripts and start adapting from scratch. As always, the workaholic director is busy: coming up is Haywire (spring), Contagion (fall) and Liberace, set to film mid-late next year.

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Zhao said with her Bass Reeves biopic, she’ll direct a more traditional cast like she did with her first-timers: “You can work with an actor in a certain way, you can create an environment like Terrence Malick has always done.”